GRGR(5) Katje and the Nazis

[Doug Millison]

At 2:54 AM -0700 7/8/99, Michael Perez quibbled about GR references to the
Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and other undesirables:
[snip]
>Most of the other bits "evidence" supporting this claim are, indeed,
>stretches, though.

Of course we can all read whatever we want to read, or not, in GR. Still, I
continue to marvel at the resistance that comes up each time I make the
case that one of the things TRP writes about in GR is the Holocaust. What
is it about this subject that is so difficult to admit in the reading of
this novel?  It's not as if I've said this is the only thing TRP is doing
in the book. Such denial (of the Holocaust holding an important, even
central position in GR) also requires that one turn aside from many (yes,
many) references and allusions in GR -- in earlier posts I detailed quite a
series of such in the opening sequence of the novel (a location many
novelists use for material they consider particularly important), and the
undeniable direct references that tie the Holocaust directly and
unmistakably to the technology that serves as a central organizing
structure for the novel, the A4 rocket. I could have also brought into my
post of yesterday the major role that the Oven plays in this episode
featuring Katje, Blicero, Gottfried -- is it really necessary to point out
what an obvious reference this Oven is to Nazi atrocities, in a novel which
takes as its setting WWII and which specifically focuses on the Nazis?

Admitting that TRP also alludes to other instances of genocide (Herero the
huge example in GR) and perhaps by extension is referring to all instances,
what's the difficulty in admitting the very obvious and specific references
to the Nazi Holocaust?  Is there some academic trend or fashion that I'm
bucking in making such an assertion? Is it too damaging to late 20th
century ironic sensibilities to admit that TRP, epitome of postmodern
novelists as a certain group of critics and theorists have crowned him,
might indulge a non-ironic condemnation of something as serious -- and as
overwhelmingly important in the 20th century -- as the Nazi genocide of the
Jews? Maybe a younger generation of GR readers hasn't had the documentary
film images of the Holocaust burned into their brains the way an older
generation did, just after WWII when the Nazis were brought to trial, and
again on U.S. TV throughout the 50s and 60s for the Baby Boomers? I know
that a certain TRP-bashing foreign-based "journalist" has often tried to
make the case for TRP as anti-Semite, but I don't get the sense that's what
drives this reluctance. But, whatever the reasons, I just don't get it.

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